Mason e



, what to adapt the powder to guns of varying fifty parts by weight of nitroglycerine, fifty benzol is used instead of the urea crystals four ment, care being taken that a sulficient quan- .dinitrobenzol-with or without the addition in the proportions and in the manner hereof introducing too much rather than too little weight of the solvent as I used of gun cotton.

EETES ATENT v MASON E. LEONARD, or MANCHESTER, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNOR TO THE- LEONARD SMOKELESS POWDER COMPANY, OF SAME PLACE.

.SMOKELESS PjowoER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 507,279, dated October 24, 1893.

Application filed September 13, 1898;

Beit known that I, MASON E. LEONARD, of Manchester,- in the county of Ocean and State of New Jersey, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Gunpowder, of which the following is a specification. v

My invention relates to an improvementin gun powder with the object in vi w of producing a. high power, smokeless explosive.

The powder consists of nitroglycerinqgun cotton, lycopodium and a neutralizer of free acidsuch for example as urea crystals or of oil. The above ingredients are combined iuafter set forlh,.the particular proportions of the several ingredients being varied somecalibers. For the United States thirty cali ber ride the following proportions have given very satisfactory results: one hundred and parts'by weight of gun cotton,ten parts by weight of lycopodium, and four partsby weight of finely triturated urea crystals. It dinitroparts by weight should be used. I

In practice I first mix the several ingredients above named together and then introduce as a solvent either acetone alone or acetone combinedwith acetate of anyl or acetone combined with acetic ether. The amount of solvent which I employ is a matter of judg-- tity be introduced to thoroughlydissolve the gun cotton. The error should be on the side and, as I have not yet determined the least amountof the solvent which is necessary to dissolve :the gun cotton, vI have used snccessfl fully one and one-half times as much by The form of guncotton which I prefer to employ is trinitrocellulose. After the introduction of thesolvent the mixture willbe in a Serial No. 485,417. (No specimens.)

condition of viscid liquid orof apasty nature and after stirring it as a person would mix mortar, it is allowed to stand in sealed jars fora period of twelve hours, more or loss.

The mixture is then agitated,eitherby means of hand or by a mixer or heater of' any well known or approved form such for example as a Dover egg beater, built upon a scale adapted to the work in hand, for the purpose of evaporating the solvent and bringing the active ingredients of the explosive into intimate/contact. The mass is then formed into a cake or granules of the desired size by pressure in suitable molds. The mold employed should be-made to correspond with the size of grain'desired and is purely a matter of mechanical judgment. I have used for the purpose of molding the grains a macaroni machine in which the material is pressed through perforations by meansof a plunger, the result being to form the mass into long, flexible rods. To form small grains, these rods are made extremely small, one-twentieth of an inch in diameter for example, and are then cut up into short pieces by feeding them MASON E. LEONARD.

Witnesses:

FREDK. HAYNES, GEORGE BARRY. 

